1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus, and a control method and program thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
Image processing apparatus such as multifunction peripherals now have, in addition to a function that processes a large number of images at high speed, a function that incorporates a general-purpose PC server function and simultaneously runs multiple general-purpose applications. Such an image processing apparatus independently includes, as a hardware configuration, a stand-alone general-purpose PC system for implementing the general-purpose PC server function and a real-time image processing system. This is to maximize the performance of respective functions.
For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 09-34609 has proposed an image processing apparatus that employs a low-cost general-purpose PC technique with high functionality obtained by connecting a printer control board to a motherboard of a general-purpose PC via a general-purpose PCI bus. Ordinary general-purpose PCs must have a storage device. Accordingly, in the image processing apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 09-34609, a storage device is provided on the motherboard of the general-purpose PC and exchanges image data via the PCI bus.
However, the above conventional technique has the following problems. The performance of an image processing apparatus as described above depends on the performance of the general-purpose bus that connects two systems. In other words, no problem arises when processing relatively small image data, such as monochrome images and low-resolution color images, at low speed, but when processing high quality color images at high speed, there is concern that problems might arise such as bus bandwidth-related problems and an increase in transfer buffer size.
In addition, in the case of an image processing apparatus in which another CPU system is installed at the end of the general-purpose PCI bus, a large amount of hard disk space is used to perform communication between the CPUs and to implement various server functions on the general-purpose PC side. Furthermore, because the operating system sequentially accesses files by using a queued access method, there is also a possibility that the performance of image input/output might be lowered due to waiting for disk I/O. One of the methods to solve such problems is to provide a hard disk dedicated to image storage on the expansion board side. However, when a plurality of hard disks are provided, problems arise such as an increase in failure rate and an increase in cost.